Death Penalty Democrat California Governor Gray Davis murders again, this time executing Robert Massie on March 27, 2001, who has been on and off Death Row for 36 years, courtesy us taxpayers. He was never rehabilitated, but was let out of prison, and thus killed again. Our tax dollars must go for rehabilitation, not punishment, if we are to solve any social problems at all.

The United States now stands in stark opposition to Europe where the death penalty is now virtually non-existent. Its backward economic figures coincide with its backward judicial system.

The death penalty is first and foremost a class weapon of terror against the workingclass, by the ruling capitalist class. It exists wherever labor is weak, and labor is very weak in the U.S., especially in the southern states and in California, where the death penalty is common, and being used with greater frequency as the economic crisis worsens. In the US, the death penalty is also racist as the black and Latino communities who together comprise the majority on death row in the US, also comprise the majority of the poorest sectors of the workingclass, those of us who sell our labor for less than ,000 per year. The death penalty is also human sacrifice and immoral. The death penalty is dead wrong.

This death penalty Democratic governor has proven himself to be even more viciously anti-workingclass than his Republican predecessor, Pete Wilson. He has denied parole to people sentenced to life WITH parole, although Wilson did grant parole to such people. He has vetoed increases in unemployment compensation and twice vetoed increases in Workers' Compensation benefits. He has been a completely puppet of the utilities companies, acquiescing to their blackmail blackouts with whatever millions of tax dollars in state funding and rate increases they want instead of taking over the entire utility operation by eminent domain for a state public power agency.

This is the "lesser evil" candidate that so many people voted for that Peace & Freedom Party lost its ballot status in 1998, after 30 years on the ballot. It should be obvious by now that Davis is the greater evil because capitalism, which he supports, is in a greater crisis. Whether it is a Republican or Democrat in office, so long as they respond to the wishes of the capitalist class, they will be the greater evil as capitalism is rotting on its feet.

The only hope for any change is to vote for a socialist party, like Peace & Freedom Party, which always opposes the death penalty and the prison-industrial complex, always supports public power, and always supports maximum increases possible in unemployment and Workers' Compensation benefits. Peace & Freedom always is for peace, labor, civil rights for all including gay rights and women's rights, for all environmental protections and programs that benefit the workingclass and is for socialism.

If you would like more alternatives on the ballot, TODAY, fill out a voter registration form, check "Other" and write in Peace & Freedom Party. We need you now. For more information, see www.peaceandfreedom.org.